Through our very own editors and guest writers, this blog will discuss the INSIDE scoop on the admissions process of various schools and programs. If you wish to ask a specific question, please write to us, and we will make every attempt to address your questions in our future blog discussions.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

UC Davis Business School Now Taking GRE Scores

Making itself one of a handful leading graduate business schools in California, UC Davis recently announced its intent to allow incoming applicants to submit Graduate Record Examination scores in lieu of Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) scores. Like UC Berkeley and UCLA, Davis is initially offering the option only to part-time MBA students, but will expand it to full-time applicants for the 2012 academic year.

This trend was arguably started when Stanford's Graduate School of Business instituted the idea back in 2006. The idea behind the shift was to increase the diversity of the pool of business school applicants. With the world of business now encompassing a more connected global market, ethnic, racial and national diversity is also key for business schools hoping to offer students access to a diverse learning environment.

The GRE has historically been accepted by a wide variety of graduate schools while the GMAT has been reserved specifically for business school admissions. The GRE is slightly less expensive and more generous with fee-waiver applications than the GMAT. These differences mean that accepting GRE scores hypothetically draws students from a broader educational milieu (the arts and the sciences), and different socioeconomic backgrounds across the world.

Loosening the reins on the standardized test requirements may help in that regard. Both exams test similar quantitative and analytical skills so admissions officers will continue to get a solid read on their applicants' testing abilities. Students interested in some sort of graduate education need not be pigeonholed for a single degree (as are GMAT test takers). With all of the additional entrance requirements of most business schools, the demographic shift may be slender, but the door is now ever so slightly more ajar.